Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice

That’s what our little GIRL is made of! Well let’s hope so at least! I was a little bit of a wild one when I was little so you never know haha!

We had our big anatomy scan this morning and were told that everything looks great and that we have a healthy baby girl growing inside my belly and we could not be more excited!!!

I had a feeling from the moment that I found out I was pregnant that this baby was going to be a girl.

I got pregnant about three weeks after my mom passed away. Even though it was sooner than we expected I knew how incredibly blessed we were to get pregnant right away since not everyone is so lucky.  The minute I read “pregnant” on that first pregnancy test I knew that my mom had her hand in this.

More than anything my mom wanted to be a grandmother. She bugged me about it all the time. She even sent me an email about a month after Danny and I got married letting me know that she was thinking about it and included a list of ridiculous names that her future grandkids could call her and my dad. She was too funny/borderline crazy. Anyway, when I saw that positive pregnancy test I knew that the first thing my mom asked for when she got to Heaven was a grandchild. The second thing I thought was, I bet she asked for it to be a girl.

My mom has a son and a daughter. I know she loved us both equally even though I always gave everyone a hard time and would say that my parents loved me more than they loved my brother.  My brother was my parents first child so he has that going for him but I was the baby girl and my mom always said that there was just something special about having a daughter. Maybe it was because my mom loved her mom so much and was the ultimate momma’s girl. Or, maybe it was because my mom was one of 5 daughters. Whatever it was, she just thought daughters were a special gift.

I would have been equally as happy if this baby would have been a boy. At the end of the day all I wanted and prayed for was a healthy baby. But, finding out that the baby really is a girl just like I thought it would be when I first found out about the pregnancy just makes me feel like my mom still has an active role in my life. It makes me feel like maybe it really was a little whisper I heard from my mom when I was looking at that positive pregnancy test back in November.

And now the fun begins! Time to start shopping for bows, tutus, and sparkles! I can’t wait!

Oh Baby Baby - Week 17

 

How Far Along? 17 weeks
Size of Baby?  Baby is the size of an onion and now weighs 5.9 ounces and is about 5.1 inches long.
Maternity Clothes?  Not yet, but I think the time is coming to seriously start looking for some new clothing.
Weight Gain? 4 pounds
Gender? We will know in a little less than a week! Both Danny and I are thinking it is a girl!
Sleep? Great!
Food Cravings? Fruit
What I Miss? Margaritas
Symptoms?  Still some headaches and a little bit of back pain that I blame on my boobs.
Belly Button? In
Best Moment of the Week?  Starting to really notice a baby bump!

Oh Baby Baby - Week 16

How Far Along? 16 weeks

Size of Baby? Baby is the size of an avocado and now weighs 3.5 ounces and is about 4.6 inches long.

Maternity Clothes? Not yet! I did order 2 bella bands but have not used them yet since my pants are still buttoning. The only thing I have had to be careful about is my tops since the “girls” have grown substantially so some of my old shirts are out of the rotation these days.

Weight Gain? 4 pounds

Gender? We find out on February 27th!

Sleep? Sleep is pretty much the same as it has always been. I get up to go the bathroom frequently but I did that before I was pregnant too and I fall right back asleep when I get in bed. I have started to sleep with 4 pillows at night and I have been having more dreams but overall my sleep quality is still great!

Food Cravings? Fruit and fruit juice

What I Miss? Margaritas

Symptoms? Currently the only real symptom I have is headaches. My doctor told me that they are the worst between 14 and 18 weeks so hopefully they will be gone soon.

Belly Button? In

Best Moment of the Week? Hearing a strong and steady heartbeat at my doctors appointment last Friday!

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage...

Well, you know the rest. We are having a baby (expected to arrive 7/31/12)!!!

This is definitely a little earlier than we had always planned to have a baby, but after my mom passed away we had one of those "life is short, you never know what is going to happen, what are we waiting for, lets just give it a try and see what happens" conversations and now here we are, almost 16 weeks pregnant!

Starting at week 8 I had Danny take a weekly picture of me so we could track my belly growth. I wanted to be wearing the same thing in the picture each week so I bought a black t shirt material dress. Well as you will see below it was not flattering! I looked hunch backed and like I had fat arms so we had to do a wardrobe change starting with week 11. I wish we would have done it sooner but I did not realize the hideousness of the first dress until we took the first three weeks of pictures off the memory card to start editing them!

So here you have the weekly bump pictures for weeks 8-15.

















Going forward I am hoping to be able to stay on track and post my weekly pictures on Tuesdays!

Revolutionary

How do you normally eat a kiwi? Peel off the fuzz and slice it up? Me too. Until today.

This morning I was packing up my lunch and snacks for work. I pulled a few kiwi out of the carton and was going to slice them up when I realized all my Tupperware was dirty. I decided to put them back and just pack an apple instead. When I took a second look at the carton I realized there was a picture of a little girl with half a kiwi in her hand and she was eating it with a spoon and looked very happy.

How have I never realized that you can eat a kiwi like that?!?!? That is so much easier and faster and less messy than my method.

To make sure I was not the only person in the world that didn't know about this amazing kiwi eating method I asked my friend Kiki how she eats kiwi. She is old school like me and uses the peel and slice method as well so I let her in on my newest discovery and it totally rocked her socks.

But I couldn't stop there! I had to let the whole world know (or at least the 5 people who read my blog)!

Enjoy your kiwi friends!

A Trip Back Home

This weekend I made an impromptu trip back home. I had actually been looking forward to the trip all week, but the minute I sat in my seat on the plane my eyes filled with tears and I had to fight them back for the rest of the hour and twenty minute flight.

I was actually surprised by the tears. Not that tears are any stranger to me these days since they are pretty much a daily occurrence. I was surprised by the tears because this isn’t the first time I have been home since my mom passed away three months ago. This is actually the third time. I didn’t cry those first two times when Danny and I set off on the drive to Brownsville even though I knew I wouldn’t be seeing my mom at the other end. I didn’t even cry when we pulled up to the house and I knew she wouldn’t be waiting inside. So why were the tears coming now just sitting on a plane?

I realized this was the first trip I had made home by myself. Danny had been with me the first two times which I guess helped me keep my mind off things. I also tend to not cry in front of people because it makes me feel awkward. So silly I know. This was also the first time I had flown home since my mom passed away. I knew that when I landed at our tiny airport in Brownsville I would not see both of my parents goofily smiling and waving at me as I made my way towards them. That is probably the best part of flying into a small airport. People stand there and wait for you to come off the plane instead of just picking you up outside of baggage claim.

I guess somehow my dad knew that I would need my spirits brightened. He was there waiting for me even though my flight got in twenty minutes early. He was standing there goofily smiling as usual and holding up a sign that had my name on it. He said someone else had been there holding up a sign for a doctor and he wanted to make sure I felt important too! Mission accomplished. I know I am the most important thing to my dad who would do anything just to get a smile out of me.

All that emotion before I even got to the real reason for my trip home! I went home to see my grandparents. Both of my mom’s parents have been going through some pretty rough stuff recently. My grandpa has been in the hospital for about a month with stomach and kidney problems. About a week ago they told us it was stomach cancer. The very next day my grandma was walking out of the house to go to church and she fell down and broke her wrist and her pelvis.

My grandma is doing better than I expected. We were all worried at first that she would be bed ridden for the next few months while she waited for her pelvis to heal but fortunately the break isn’t too horrible and she is able to sit up and move her legs. She can’t get out of the bed on her own or walk on her own yet but at least she won’t have to be immobilized for months and just laying flat in a bed. When my dad and I got to the rehab facility to see her on Saturday she was sitting in a wheel chair and had just gotten back from therapy where she said they make her try to walk and do leg exercises. She is a strong willed lady who hates not being able to do things on her own so I think she will be ok.

My grandpa on the other hand hasn’t gotten the greatest news. He is too weak to do anything about the cancer. Both chemo and the surgery to remove part of the stomach would be too much on his already weak body. The decision has been made to send him home so he can enjoy whatever time he has left. He looked really good when we saw him on Saturday. He ate well, sounded good and said he wasn’t having any stomach pain. My hope is that whatever happens, he is pain free. Who knows, he might surprise us all and have another year of life left in him. If not, at least I know my mom will be there waiting for him with open arms when he gets to Heaven.

I bet that is why she went before all the rest of us. She just had to make sure that Heaven really was perfect for all of her loved ones and so we would know that a familiar face would be waiting for us when we got there.

Special Delivery

Last night I got a special delivery in the mail. A package from Amazon came that I didn't order so I called Danny to tell him that something had come for him. He told me not to open it. I don't like surprises so of course I opened it and got a pleasant surprise. Well, there were actually two packages from Amazon and the first one I opened was a carbon monoxide detector so that was not exciting at all but the second one was awesome!

I opened the box to find this



The most delicious sour candy ever!!! Two giant tubs of it!!!



I had emailed Danny a link to the candy about a week ago and he asked me why I needed that since I still had tons of sour candy from Christmas at home. I had to explain to him that it was my favorite sour candy ever. He didn't seem impressed and I knew I didn't really need that much candy so I forgot about it until a few days later when I decided I needed a little after dinner snack. I was racking my brain trying to figure out where I could get my yummy belts and then I remembered they had them at a grocery store we used to go to when I lived in another part of town. Danny said that was too far away and we had just come from there as that is the neighborhood we had eaten dinner in, such a buzz kill. Then I remembered the store in mall that you buy candy out of the bins from and costs like a million dollars which Danny also vetoed since it was 9 pm and he hates the mall. I had plans to go the mall the next day anyway so I knew I could get some then, which I did.

Now, a couple days later I have two tubs of my very own! I ate about 8 sour belts last night and burned all the taste buds off of my tongue but it was so worth it. If anyone has any sour belt cravings you know where to come to get your fix!